The Homecoming - Alan Russell

Stella had a seven year old daughter named Stella. Her dad- Duncan- called her a pixie. There were ten kids including Stella at the beach with their parents. The had the beach mostly to themselves and every so often a parent did a head count. Stella liked one of the other kids - he was her brother’s best friend- Luke. Stella liked to do things her own way. The next day Stella wasn’t in her bedroom and hadn’t slept in her bed. Stella couldn’t be found and there was no clues to where she was or what had happened. Then seven years later a teenage Stella showed up at her parents door, she had reappeared just as mysteriously as she had disappeared. What was really odd was Stella’s mom Eleanor had planned on taking her life on that seventh anniversary. But she wasn’t the same girl. She told the story of the Travelers and their journey beyond the stars. Travelers were extraterrestrials that communicates telepathically. Detective Cheever is the detective who had Stella’s case from the beginning and had never given up. Another group was tracking Stella as well. Everyone even Stella’s therapist feel’s Stella’s story isn’t true. I enjoyed this book. And felt it was well written and I didn’t want to put this down as I wanted to see what would happen next. I do feel that many questions were left unanswered. And that kind of annoyed me. I do feel the author handled the way the family would act realistically. I also liked the twists. This drag for me at times. I did like the mystery part of this book as well as the romance. I liked the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend.

I see three challenges for any Christmas book:

1. Find an original angle that's grounded in something real but allows reality to bend for Christmas
2. Evoke the spirit of Christmas without being too saccharine
3. Make me care about the people as people rather than as avatars for Christmas messages

Allen Russell's "St. Nick" manages to pass all three tests. He managed to make me laugh at bad Christmas jokes that I hadn't heard in a long time and cry at the unfairness of a universe in which children get cancer.

"St. Nick", tells the story of Nick Pappas, a San Deigo cop who has been through a recent trauma that has him suspended from the police force. It's Thanksgiving and he's living alone in a shoddy apartment and seriously contemplating eating his gun. He gives himself a reprieve to help his former partner catch some muggers at the shopping mall he runs security for. To catch the muggers, he goes undercover as Santa.

From there, Nick's life gets taken over by the responsibilities that come with the new uniform he's wearing. It brings him into contact with a terminally sick boy with an impossible Christmas wish and sends him searching for Laura, a little girl whose letter to Santa is so moving that Nick ends up starting a search to find her and help her.

Along the way, he builds relationships with a relentlessly cheerful Head Elf, a nurse in the Pediatric Oncology ward and a woman TV reporter who films a segment from his lap and the quarterback from the San Diego Football team.

Throughout, Nick remains the cop he always was. He never loses touch with reality but he does allow himself to re-engage with hope and drives himself to do the right thing for children who need him.

This is an engaging read, with a great pace, a good mix of laughter and tears, a plot that surprises but remains believable and a spirit of Christmas that is about finding the hope and the love to push through the depression and the pain that life offers us. I think it's a perfect  December read.

"St. Nick" was my first Alan Russell book. Looking at his bibliography, it seems that he writes all kinds of fiction but always starts by imagining a real person in a real situation.

In this interview, "True Confessions Of St. Nick",  he explains how he went about writing "St. Nick", including the time he spent working as a Santa in San Diego.

I've been in a crazy holiday-themed reading stream. For a lark, I picked up an audible book - St Nick by Allen Russell. What a whim. Even though it is totally outside my normal reading choices I enjoyed it immensely. Raymond made me cry happy & sad tears and Mitchell the Basset Hound made me laugh out loud in public. Nick is the kind of character I like too much but I avoid like the plague because they make me feel too much. Allen Russell wrote a sweet adult story that touched on some incredibly heavy subjects but somehow he was able to make it light and loving and funny and full of compassion.

*Book source ~ Free with Kindle First

Detective Michael Gideon and his German Shepherd partner Sirius are the only cops in the Special Cases Unit. Tasked to solve any case that seems strange or unusual they do the best they can to close each case that comes their way. While trying to find a Reluctant Hero who saved some elementary kids from a lone gunman Gideon and Sirius get a case about a homeless man who witnessed the murder of an angel. Both cases are interesting and twisty, but Gideon is like a dog with a bone. Or is that Sirius? Anyway, Gideon is determined to find the Reluctant Hero so the Mayor can present him with the key to the city and he’s more determined to figure out this angel business and bring a murderer to justice. But he’s playing with some people who think they are above the law and that can be a dangerous game to win.

I went into this Gideon & Sirius book 2 with high hopes. I loved book 1 and I hoped it wasn’t a one-off. I was so glad to find another win! Gideon is working two cases and I love watching him solve said cases. He’s an excellent detective even if he sometimes has to get clues after dreaming yet again about the fire where he, Sirius and Ellis Haines (the Santa Ana Strangler) almost died. You see, some nights he relives that fire and when he wakes he has a vision. It could be his subconscious trying to tell him something or it could be something paranormal. Either way, he gets clues to his cases, but sometimes he doesn’t know how to interpret them. Very cool for me the reader. Not so much for Gideon.

The plot is a good one. The whole angel thing? Loved it! And I loved how Gideon gnawed and gnawed at the Reluctant Hero case until he found what he was looking for. Oh, and the RH? I hope we see more of him. He’d be an awesome addition to the cast of characters. Speaking of characters, they’re great and not just props. There’s some romance and plenty of humor, too. If you like twisty mysteries well-seasoned with humor then I recommend this one. Don’t forget book 1, Burning Man, too. I hope this series is around for awhile.